The berries helped a little to ease his mind and nerves. Feeling glad that he had managed to take just enough to ease his nerves and mind without becoming intoxicated or even tipsy. While it wasn't a massive help, it was still enough that when Chris finally opened his eyes again, the sharp edges of panic and worry had dulled to something manageable. His mind slightly more clear, while the greedy whisper in the back of his mind had quietened back into just a silent whisper. The fact the plants couldn't hear it only proved to make him think it was a side effect from his guilt and worry, a mental manifestation of some kind.
The cloud tree's mist continued to softly drift around him, cool and patient as its voice came through softly in his mind, asking if he was feeling any better.
"Yeah, I think I'm getting there," Chris murmured softly.
He stayed there a short while longer, listening to the sounds of the village settling back into its rhythm. The mobile vines once more continuing their patrols along the wall, their red blooms tilting this way and that as they scanned the Barrens. It looked strangely like they were dancing now, while the spike-ball clusters clicked softly as they shifted positions, seemingly still competing among themselves, still trying to be better than the other. If he tried focusing on the other pair of trees, he could make out the distant murmur of the yam tree saying something dry to the fig tree who would respond with its usual shy deference.
The normal sounds proved to be the best thing for further settling him. The sounds of the village, no, the sounds of HIS village slowly brought a smile to his face, further ridding him of the bothersome feeling.
Eventually he pushed himself up, brushed the dust from his pants, and went looking for Sera. Finally feeling somewhat better and in a somewhat better frame of mind and spirit.
He found her near the gate but not on her usual rock this time. Instead she was standing at the edge of a patch of medical grass, but her focus was on the leather-wrapped core in her hand. As he got closer, he managed to notice the little world tree's root had curled around her ankle, but her hands were low as she seemed to be letting it see the core. As he stood next to her, he noticed how its tip rested against the bundle like it was trying to read something through touch alone.
That's when Sera looked up, noticing him standing by her. "It's quieter now," she said without preamble. "When I took it from you, I noticed it didn't seem to shine so much anymore, and when I looked it over, the pattern seemed a bit thicker while the blackness had lightened somewhat."
Chris crouched a few feet away, not wanting to get too close or even touch the core. "The plants have also settled down a bit. Whatever connection it tried to make with me seemed to be broken after I wrapped it and gave it back to you. And the fact the little tree of mine is touching it without any issues means the reaction was only with me, or that touching isn't creating any issues and might only react if it held it instead or something."
"You only touched it for maybe a minute or so, though." Her voice was flat, but there was something underneath. Concern, maybe. Or suspicion. Sometimes it was easy to tell, but other times, such as now, it was rather difficult. "And you're telling me it tried to make some kind of connection to you and caused a reaction through the plants? What makes you so special?"
"I guess I never told you, did I?" He began, giving her a weak smile. "Well, considering you will be staying and will probably be the one who deals with people, you should know I'm not from this world." He continued, rubbing the back of his head. "The god who dumped me here gave me a skill that lets me grow plants faster and hear the first group I grow from special seeds he sent with me, but, well, some of them don't exactly come out right." He further admitted with a small laugh. "For starters, my strangle vines are far more bloodthirsty and near constantly hungry. Well, they were till they got hurt. After that they became vengeful and wanting to cause pain to their enemies. But there's actually a lot more to it." He finished with a tired sigh.
"Like this little root that has been following me around? Is it some kind of underground plant like rock vines?" She asked with clear interest this time.
"No, it's something entirely different. It was my first real growth. I wasn't in the right state of mind and tried to grow a tree that would protect me and this village, a god-level tree called a 'world tree' that was a myth in my world. I had to feed it some of my blood to keep it living, though. And since then I have noticed slight physical changes, like how quick I built muscle, how easily I began to adapt to a physical routine, and the weird way my skin looks barky at times. I had thought it was a trick of the light, but if you've also seen it, then it might be a side effect. I think either that god did something to change me as a means of 'extra entertainment,' or it could be from saving my little world tree. Either way, whatever it is that happened seems to have made me more... along with being more susceptible to things like that core and the dungeon."
Sera was quiet for a long moment after that, looking at him now with undisclosed interest before she wrapped the stone up and tucked the bundle into her pack and sat down on the ground, motioning for him to sit next to her.
He did so without a word, and for a while they just sat there, watching the sun climb higher. The medical grass rustled next to them where he could hear it muttering something under its breath about people sitting on it when it was trying to work, but Chris ignored it.
"You asked how I heard the grass that time yet seemed unable to hear any of the other plants, right?" Sera finally said, making Chris glance at her. But he didn't speak. Didn't want to ruin whatever moment they seemed to be having. Simply giving a small nod.
"I wasn't always a knight. Before that, I was... something else. Something trained." She said softly while pulling a blade of grass and rolling it between her fingers. "There's a place in the Empire of Solaris. Not a school or military academy. Rather, it's something much older. None of the books I read could even give an exact date of when it formed or started. But they take in children who show potential. Those who can hear things others can't, see things where others see nothing, and even those who just feel things to a far higher degree. And then shape them into weapons."
Her voice stayed even, but Chris caught the way her jaw tightened on the last word. And he couldn't blame her for it. The idea didn't exactly sit well with him either.
"I was one of them. For ten full years, since the day they took me in, I was one of them. They taught me how to track magic, to sense intent, and even a means to feel the weight of a person's soul in the same way you feel heat from a fire. But all of that is not just something you get given. Rather, it's something they 'awaken' by force. And if you survive being awakened? You can't go back to sleeping normally anymore, no matter what you may try. Not to mention how they forced me to do things that can never be forgiven..."
Chris processed this slowly. "So you can hear plants because—"
"Because plants have intent." She cut him off, tucking her knees to her chest. "It's difficult to describe, but what they did to me let me feel intent better than others. Even from plants, whose intent is usually grow, spread, and live. But even so, it's still intent." She gently let the blade of grass fall from her fingers. "Like how the medical grass is loud because it's frustrated. It wants to do more than it can, and it resents being limited to only managing patches at a time over the entire village at once. While the strangle vines are loud because they're always hungry, as you said. The scream flowers are also loud because they're afraid all the time, even more so of you, which is honestly kind of funny, all things considered."
Smiling weakly, Chris let out another small sigh. "I don't suppose you can tell me why? They aren't part of my first growth, so I can't really hear them. At best I manage to feel pulses."
"They feel your guilt and your anger. And something about the voice you keep shoving down." She looked at him directly. "They don't understand it, and that's what scares them. The unknown."
He didn't know what to say to that. The scream flowers had been pulsing warnings at him whenever he went close, and he'd assumed it was just their nature or that they were skittish. Instead, it was true fear of him that they felt, along with the burdensome voice of guilt and greed.
Sera must have seen something on his face, because her voice softened slightly as she continued, a clear attempt to reassure him or ease some of the guilt. "It's not your fault, you know. Plants don't understand human darkness or humans in general. They can feel so much more than we ever could, but by the same measure, they can't process it like a human could either. To them, it's just... wrong. Like rot in good soil. Does that help you understand what I am trying to say?"
"But the others don't react that way," Chris eventually said. "The shadow berries, the cacti, the little world tree—none of them are scared of me."
"It's because they're different. Just like you said, each grew differently and not how they should. Each person is different with different personalities, and your plants seem to be similar in that regard at the very least. As for why they aren't scared? Take their natures into account. The shadow berries are healers, so they've felt worse from the things they've patched up or are ready to feel worse. The cacti are stubborn from what I could sense, so they don't scare easy. And that little tree of yours?" A ghost of something crossed her face. "It loves you far too much to ever be scared of you, plain and simple. It doesn't care what you feel or how you feel. It only cares that you're 'you,' and nothing else really matters to it."
Chris looked toward the vine hut, where he knew the little world tree's actual body was. It had begun looking more like a bush these days than a tree, but regardless of how it looked, it was his closest companion. So hearing that it felt that way made something warm flicker in his chest that pushed back against the cold feeling that had settled there since touching the core.
"What about me?" he eventually asked, his tone somewhat subdued. "What do you feel when you look at me? What intent do I give off?"
Sera considered the question longer than he expected before speaking slowly, clearly taking extreme care in choosing her words. "I see someone trying to be better than what's inside of them. Someone who's afraid of what his guilt and dark could cause him to become, so they power forward, not letting it be a means of him becoming something he isn't, but instead pressing on despite it. Someone who needs people, real human people to talk to and help him, even if he doesn't know how to say it."
She stood slowly after that, brushing off her pants, the conversation clearly over. "We all carry something, Chris. Be it guilt, grief, or even rage. That voice in your head that the scream flowers spoke of? That isn't you. It's just the weight you're carrying. The trick to dealing with it is to learn how to carry it without letting it carry you. Acknowledge it without letting it truly influence you."
She walked toward her hut, pausing at the door for a moment as she turned to give him one more unreadable look. "I'll keep the core safe till we figure out what to do with it." A small smile slowly formed on her lips, almost teasing. "That was the deal." She added before closing the door.
Chris remained sitting there for a while longer, surrounded by grass that whispered various criticisms and the other plants that watched him, occasionally giving their own input, while the little world tree whispered to him, telling him how she was sad like he was, that she felt like him but very different, that it was heavy but seemed a sliver lighter after she spoke with him.
"Yeah," Chris said quietly. "I know she's also carrying a lot. Her story made that all but clear. And then there's that past of hers. Someone doesn't go through something like that and come out fine or okay. Something like that would take a lot of time to heal, if it ever does." That was when it asked softly if she could possibly stay forever, how she seemed to make him feel a bit lighter.
Chris smiled faintly before gently touching the root. "I don't know about forever, little one. But for now? Yeah. I think she'll be staying for a while."
The root squeezed once in happiness before retreating back into the ground, and for the first time in weeks the weight felt that tiny bit lighter. Not gone, not better, but a bit more... manageable. And for now, that was enough.